Introduction

Take a moment to consider how children think about, assess and relate to technology and how that may differ from adults thinking about technology. While many of us who work with children did not grow up with contemporary digital and social media technologies, most of the young people we work with cannot imagine a world without it, and while some adults may still consider digital and social media of little importance or unhelpful, distracting or even dangerous, these technologies are an integral part of young people's lives and identities (Megele with Buzzi, 2017a). Such technologies have become embedded in everyday life and have transformed human thought and consciousness and even notions of time, place, space, boundary, proximity, friendship and relationships, influencing people's everyday choices and behaviours. Indeed, young people move seamlessly between online and offline realms and virtual/online and physical/offline are inseparably intertwined in the fabric of their lives and experiences (boyd, 2007; Livingstone, 2008; Valkenburg and Peter, 2009; Buzzi and Megele, 2011). Livingstone et al (2011) argue that digital activities can be a great source of learning and empowering for children and young people. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (Stewart et al, 2013) initiative ‘Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion’ is an example of a project aimed at the effective use of gamification and digital technologies for empowerment of young people.

Therefore, drawing on the concept of ‘cyworld’ (boyd, 2007) and the work of Livingstone (2008) and Livingstone and Haddon (2009), Megele and Buzzi (2017a) argue that practitioners and organisations should promote children's and young people's digital rights and digital citizenship, and that this requires recognising and appreciating the transformation of human experience and its liminal (simultaneously online and offline) nature and thinking about childhood as ‘cyborg childhood’ within that context. Megele and Buzzi go on to present a new child-centred and systemic model (the 10 Cs model) for assessing online risks and resilience, and the assessment diamond (Figure 3.1) for holistic safeguarding of children and young people.

This chapter explores some of ways in which digital and social technologies influence children's lives and social work and social care practice. It begins with an overview of children's and young people's use of social media and some its implications.